Judge Kenneth Fishman's sentence came a day after a jury convicted Walters of first-degree murder in the the 2009 death of Jeffrey Phillips of Braintree.

It was also a day after Phillips would have celebrated his 35th birthday.

More than a dozen friends and members of Phillips' family were in the courtroom for the sentencing. Walters apologized for the killing in a brief statement before he was sentenced.

The verdict was returned late Wednesday afternoon after nearly two full days of deliberations. The trial lasted three weeks.

"He sent down the verdict today to make us happy on his birthday," Phillips' mother, Jane Phillips of Weymouth, said on the steps of Norfolk Superior Court on Wednesday, shortly after the verdict was read.

Walters, 32, was accused of hitting Phillips at least 14 times with an ax outside the house on Middle Street in Braintree where they both lived on July 24, 2009.

Walters had asked Phillips to lend him some money and Phillips refused, since Walters already owed him money. The argument that followed the refusal turned violent.

Walters hid Phillips' body in a shed on the property for two days before taking it to Suffield, Conn., and dumping it in the woods.

Six days later, Walters went to the Braintree police station and confessed to the murder, shortly after Phillips' friends and family launched a search for him.

More than a dozen of Phillips' relatives, friends and co-workers at Vater Percussion in Holbrook applauded and shouted "thank you" to the jurors as they crossed High Street after leaving the courthouse.

Jane Phillips attended the trial, carrying a laminated picture of her son and one of his sweatshirts.

She said she was glad the trial was over. She said the verdict was "a relief and a weight off my shoulders."

Christine White of Jamaica Plain, a friend of Phillips', was wearing a black T-shirt with the words "In Memory of Jeffrey Phillips."

"It's a relief he's going away forever," White said of Walters. "But we still don't have Jeffrey back."

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, whose office prosecuted the case, commended the detectives who gave prosecutors Brian Wilson and Pamela Alford "the tools they needed to get a successful case together."

During, the trial Walters' defense attorney William Sullivan didn't deny that Walters killed Phillips, but argued that the facts pointed to a manslaughter conviction.